Awakening – Nova's Story
by Cpt. Kallan Beyda
Summary: Ever wonder why, in Argo Sinks (QFI Ep7) Nova couldn't possibly be the daughter of her Earth parents (look at their colouring and facial features). This tale delves into her genetic heritage and birth rite. Set in the Backlit Universe.
1. Chapter 1

'Where did you get that?' Noel asked his wife of fifteen years as he stepped into their small apartment.

'I found it,' Teresa answered easily. An ecstatic smile covered her face, 'isn't it just the most adorable thing you've ever seen?'

'Terry,' shaking his head, Noel sighed. 'I know you've wanted one for years,' astounded, he stopped dead, wondering just how to say they had to take the tiny thing back.

'Please tell me we can keep her!' big brown eyes pleaded.

'I don't see how,' anxious now, the portly man rubbed his chin, 'she must belong to someone.'

'Even if she does,' Teresa stated calmly, holding the object out to her husband, 'in these days of uncertainty, she might have been abandoned or the family killed. Someone has to take care of her, she'd so tiny and defenceless. It might as well be us.'

Once again shaking his head, Noel Forrester thought back through the years of their marriage. Wed in St Andrew's Baptist Church, Memphis, Tennessee when there'd been individual countries, they thought life difficult. Over population caused the first decades of the twenty second century to become called The Great Famine, followed by The Death Years of the twenties and thirties. Food, water, power and housing all in short supply the developed countries first waged economic war with sanctions and hording. Millions died each day, decimating the population of impoverished nations. Powerless to stop it, the UN disbanded. Without proper sanitation a world plague quickly ensued, wiping out almost a third of the Earth's population before a cure could be found. Finally the political posturing ceased and the remainder of the Human race began to recover.

Noel and Teresa grew up with constant loss of friend and family. They'd found each other in spite of the bereavement still surrounding them in the fifties. By 2160 things had started to resemble a peaceful existence and they'd wed. Three years into their marriage, the first wave of Gamalon Attack craft had been spotted by a remote satellite on the outer perimeter of the solar system.

_Not that we knew it at the time_, Noel remembered, _the Earth, barely recovered, had little in the way of spacefaring technology. All our effort went into fighting ourselves in the first half of the twenty second century. A few scientist demanded resources to explore our solar system in the hope of finding raw materials to keep this plundered planet alive. That alone allowed the newly created World Council to give them limited funding. The businessmen built an entertainment complex on the moon, interested in profits over finding new habitats for humanity. Inadvertently, they've led us to the current state of affairs, with planet bombs raining down on our world, slowly destroying the Earth._

'Terry,' walking over to the couch, Noel fell into the soft fux-leather. The bundle of golden hair peaked out through the blanket in his arms. 'We have to report this to the authorities.'

'Why,' she cried, 'when it's all we've wanted for years now.'

'It's the right thing to do,' he explained. 'I know you've wanted a child of our own. I'm sorry my exposure to the early planet bombs left us unable to have a baby.' They started falling on the Earth five years ago. Noel, a lecturer in geology had been asked for his expert opinion on the strange phenomena. The new and deadly form of radioactivity within the meteorites discovered after several scientists became exposed. Then they understood the despicable tactics of their new enemy.

'If we hadn't waited all those years,' Teresa lamented. Like many, they delayed having children to be in a better emotional and economic position. The world, changing around them, became an uncertain place as more about the Gamalons became public knowledge.

'Taking this little girl, even if she is an orphan,' Noel handed the infant to his wife, getting up from his chair, 'isn't up to us. The authorities need to establish if her family is still alive. Can you imagine if this were your daughter, lost after the latest round of planet bombs?'

Leaving her in tears, Noel placed the call.

* * *

'Do not cry, my beloved,' Eaton transfused down the open connection to his bond mate, 'all is as it should be.'

'I know,' she replied, unable to completely divorce her emotions from her duty. 'It is I who made this possible. This child, she will be needed. The universe asks that I do this, and I cannot deny a force greater than myself.'

'Yet we do not know why such sacrifices have been asked of our people, of us' he returned, calm on the exterior but confused internally. 'What of our other daughter?' he couldn't stop the question.

Regret coloured his thoughts. When he bonded with the woman who'd one day rule Iscandar, Eaton knew his life would change. After many years, they'd both known the time to produce an heir approached. Starsha, their firstborn now ruled in their place. Sasha's energy faded as the plague extinguished one life after another on their home world. Astra, their third daughter survived to keep her older sister company.

Smiling, Cosma looked into the stars passing the observation window of their spaceship. 'She is a thriving young woman now. One day Trelana will achieve grate things for her planet. I feel her through the energy of the universe.'

'And Nova?' Eton requested.

'Has a destiny,' Cosma once again felt the tears welling in her light brown eyes. 'Her path in this world will not be easy or uncomplicated. Humans are not open to the great flow of power which surrounds them so she will remain un-awakened. Either Iscandar must reach out to her, to provide her with the potential or Nova must meet her sisters.'


	2. Chapter 2

'I'm sorry,' the harried older woman spoke quickly, several communications devices going off in the background, 'you're going to have to keep her. I just don't have a place for an infant in any of the facilities, the ones still standing that is. The last round of planet bombs created so many homeless, parentless children you can take your pick!'

'We'd like to keep her,' Noel Forrester replied through gritted teeth, 'but what if her parents are still alive and looking for her?'

'I don't have a missing child fitting that description. To the best of my knowledge, she doesn't match any of the reports we have. I've even run the DNA you supplied through the lost children data base. There isn't a person living, looking for this little girl. If you want her,' at the end of her tether, the woman almost demanded, 'I suggest you keep her. I'll have the appropriate documents started by my assistant immediately. I'll even have a friend in the records invent a birth certificate to prove she's yours if that's what you really want. God alone knows how many of those are destroyed every day with these Gamalon attacks on our cities.'

Hating himself for the capitulation, Noel knew the cost of taking baby Nova from his wife. He couldn't do it. In fact, in the forty hours since Teresa found the infant, he grown attached. Strange, in the same time period the enemy increased their assault on the Earth. Almost ten planet bombs softened up the Eastern Sea board of the former United States of America, followed by an aerial raid on several cities in the same area. The Earth Defence Force managed to stave off the attack, loosing almost half of the ships and men they'd sent to fight the incursion. Fresh calls for young men and women to join the EDF ensued. Ships they could manufacture, crew were becoming harder to find but experience, that disappeared at a phenomenal rate.

'Done,' Noel Forrester stated glaring at the woman. 'What do you need from me?'

'Can you come in tomorrow morning, around ten?' the woman sighed somewhat relieved this additional child didn't fall into her overfilled lap. 'I'll have the official documentation ready. Please bring your wife, your child and identification for both parents. It shouldn't take more than half an hour.'

'It can't be that easy,' Noel shook his head in disbelief.

'In case it's escaped your notice,' acid dominated the woman's tone, her attention already elsewhere, 'we are at war. In times like this, a lot of things happen that shouldn't. Even if you didn't want her, I've no choice but to leave the child in your care. I have nowhere to place her.'

A few minutes later, Noel tried explaining the content of his seventh call to the authorities to his wife. The first fell on deaf ears. The next two calls, sent during the worst of the bombing, demanded he call back later. They'd been forced to keep the child overnight. The bonding process had commenced with Teresa popping out to buy a few necessities for the child.

Another attempt ended in a recording, promising the appropriate authorities would contact him soon. Almost an entire day passed before his fifth call finally elicited a response. By then it'd already been too late. Teresa considered baby Nova theirs. She'd purchased a crib and clothing, moving the child into the spare room.

The content of the sixth call forced the Forrester's keep the child for yet another night. The only concession, Teresa needed to take the baby for a check-up and DNA screen yesterday afternoon. She'd been officially placed in the system. Today's call gave Noel the results of those tests.

'I know we've seen increasing planet bombs in this area, but,' at a loss for words he shrugged. 'I hadn't realised how many displaced people, especially children this wars crated. Maybe we should have tried to adopt before.'

'So long as we have our daughter,' Teresa smiled brightly, the happy child cuddled into her embrace. Looking up to her husband, soft brown eyes stated her pleasure at this turn of events. 'How are we going to explain this to our neighbours?'

'The same way I've been explaining it for the last two days,' Noel suggested, 'by not saying anything and smiling politely. It's not going to matter much longer. This area's radiation is increasing and will be affected by the most recent attack. A lot of people are moving away before the World Council declares it an unliveable zone. Construction of the underground cities will start next month. Within ten years, the entire population will be forced to live like moles if we can't find a way to stop this.'

'Are you thinking we should go early?' Teresa asked.

'I've already applied for housing,' Noel cringed. He hadn't wanted to worry is wife at the rapidly changing socio-political climate. 'As one of the primary investigators, our family fall into a high priority group for repatriation. I don't know that we can build fast enough with limited resources to house the entire population. Then again,' he looked into space, 'if the death rate rises with increasing attacks, there might not be that much of a populace to relocate.'

'You believe things will get that bad?' Teresa sucked in a breath.

'I don't think,' Noel carefully considered his words, 'we've seen the worst the Gamalons have to offer yet. Yes, things will get worse as food, water and power are once again in short supply. It's going to create resource shortages, building entire cities in ten years. I wonder what will be left for our daughter's generation.'

* * *

Above them, hidden in a creator on the dark side of the moon, Eaton and Cosma watched the scene in the Forrester's living room and waited. Their ship cloaked in a device making them effectively invisible to the Gamalon raiding party, they witnessed the offensive. Unable to stop the deadly attack and insidious radiation, the Iscandarians felt helpless. Cosma allowed as much bioenergy as she could spare to the environment surrounding the Forrester's apartment complex.

'We,' she turned to her bond mate, 'have done all we can. The Earth's energy allowed me to affect the changes needed for Nova to stay with this family. From now on, they will consider her their own.'

'Even I can feel the strength of the love this woman our daughter will call mother emanates,' Eaton sounded somewhat astounded. 'I cannot conceive of a bonded pair unable to bear a child.'

'It demonstrates the differences between our people,' Cosma kept her emotions under tight regulation. 'There is much here on Earth which would benefit from our Bio-energy. These people are not yet ready to embrace a peaceful co-existence with the universe. They have been at war with each other until recently. Think back to the same period in Iscandar's history. We almost destroyed our world before change occurred.'

'That,' Eaton sent his surprise down their bond, 'was a very long time ago.'

'Yes,' Cosma agreed, 'both Earth and Telezart have much to learn before they can become part of the greater universe. Our daughters will be instrumental in the process. Now, we are needed elsewhere in the galaxy. The great plague we feared has spread.'

'You believe it is our destiny to eradicate it?' Eaton asked.

'That,' Cosma added, 'will be our final service to this universe. After that, we may join the Bio-energy.'


End file.
